Last Born In The Wilderness

In this expansive discussion, investigative journalist and food columnist Arun Gupta tackles the extremely online drama between "progrowth" and "degrowth" leftists about one of the cheapest fruits you can find in the supermarket: the banana. Will we have bananas under socialism?  Support the podcast and listen to this interview: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness

Darcia Narvaez returns to the podcast, along with co-author G.A. Bradshaw, to discuss their new book, The Evolved Nest: Nature's Way of Raising Children and Creating Connected Communities published by North Atlantic Books. G. A. Bradshaw, PhD, is the founder and director of The Kerulos Center for Nonviolence. Her diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder in free-living elephants launched the field of trans-species psychology. She holds doctorate degrees in ecology and psychology and a master’s in geophysics and was a Fellow at the National Science Foundation National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. Darcia Narvaez, PhD, MDiv, is Professor Emerita of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame. Her earlier careers include professional musician, business owner, classroom music teacher, classroom Spanish teacher and seminarian, among others. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Educational Research Association and former editor of the Journal of Moral Educati

Darcia Narvaez returns to the podcast, along with co-author G.A. Bradshaw, to discuss their new book, The Evolved Nest: Nature's Way of Raising Children and Creating Connected Communities. Support the podcast and listen to this interview: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness

Acclaimed author John Vaillant joins me to discuss Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, a masterfully written chronicle of the destructive power of fire in the twenty-first century. Fire Weather is an astounding chronicle of the boreal fire that swept through Fort McMurray, Alberta in May 2016. Over the course of 24 hours, the nearly 90,000 residents of this modern-day bitumen subarctic boom town evacuated, escaping the out of control fire as it eviscerated everything in its path. Vaillant zooms in close, guiding us through the decisions made that day as the fire raced into the city, made by residents and authorities alike as catastrophe unfolded. He expands the story to situate Fort Mac as a nexus point in the larger settler colonial history of Canada and its inextricable relationship with the fossil fuel industry and extractive capitalism, all situated within our present paradigm of ecological crisis, climate change, and 21st century fire.    John Vaiilant's acclaimed, award-winning nonfiction books, The G

Acclaimed author John Vaillant joins me to discuss 'Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast', a masterfully written chronicle of the destructive power of fire in the twenty-first century. Support the podcast and listen to this interview: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness

Jonathan Howard MD joins me to discuss his timely book, 'We Want Them Infected: How the Failed Quest for Herd Immunity Led Doctors to Embrace the Anti-Vaccine Movement and Blinded Americans to the Threat of COVID', published by Redhawk Publications. As much as Jonathan Howard’s book is a scathing examination of how various very influential and contrarian doctors misled the US public about the coronavirus pandemic, it is also a historical document. By meticulously, carefully, and thoroughly quoting countless social media posts, statements, essays, op-eds, and interviews from certain highly accredited doctors, Dr. Howard compares their claims to actual reality as the virus began to rip through the population. Over and over again, these outspoken figures made bold and inaccurate claims that the pandemic was just about to end; herd immunity was just around the corner; the worst of the plague had already past; children were unaffected; and so on. Over and over again, these contrarian figures were proven wrong. An

Biological anthropologist Dr. Cara Wall-Scheffler joins me to discuss the evolution of human locomotion and how it dovetails into the findings and conclusions of the research article she co-authored, 'The Myth of Man the Hunter: Women’s contribution to the hunt across ethnographic contexts', published last month in PLOS ONE. The data gathered and examined across numerous foraging societies by the authors of this ethnographic review points to the incredible diversity of labor males and females typically engage in to acquire food and other resources. Simultaneously, the findings and conclusions in this study upend stereotypical and essentialist notions about what the commonly understood sexual divisions of labor are—the “man as hunter” and “woman as gatherer” myth—with implications for not only anthropology as a field of study, but for contemporary discourse on topics of gender and sex. A major takeaway from this dialogue with Dr. Wall-Scheffler is the Euro- and male-centric conceptions of the origins of Hom

Legal historian and author Nate Holdren joins me to discuss broken sociality, political and social loneliness, and social murder and its depoliticization during the pandemic, as elucidated in his Peste Magazine essay 'Broken Sociality: Isolation in the Pseudo-Return to “Pre-Pandemic Normal”'. The pandemic emergency has been declared over, both here in the United States, and by the World Health Organization. That does not mean the pandemic is over, but it marks an official end to an emergency level institutional response to it. Any sort of practical and enforceable mitigatory practices to reduce the spread of the virus has been firmly relegated to the past. To add insult to injury, the trauma or discomforts incurred over the past three years are often blamed on these public health measures themselves by high-status conservative and liberal commentators and so-called experts alike. Nevermind the millions dead, the global vaccine apartheid, the tens of millions disabled and those that continue to become disable

Conspirituality podcast co-host and journalist Matthew Remski returns to the podcast, bringing his ongoing analysis of online cultists, grifters, and conspiritualists to a discussion that relates to the book he co-authored with co-hosts Julian Walker and Derek Beres titled 'Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat,' forthcoming from Public Affairs/Random House in June. We begin our discussion by delving into what Matthew describes as the “amoral attention economy” and how becoming “professionalized into the cursed news cycle” impacts one’s mental health. Matthew has taken it upon himself to jump into the fray of online “disaster spirituality” and the circles of culty health and wellness grifters—a psychologically and emotionally taxing beat to be on. Based on personal experiences he’s had, some of which he shares in this interview, along with a deep research background into cultic dynamics and abuse in spiritual movements, Matthew has developed an ability to adeptly spot, analy

Author and former climate journalist Dahr Jamail returns to the podcast to discuss the 20th anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq by United States-led coalition forces. Jamail began his journalistic career as an unembedded journalist documenting the war from the ground beginning in 2003, highlighting the countless war crimes committed by the occupying forces against the civilians of Iraq, superbly documented in his first book on the subject, 'Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq’ published in 2007 by Haymarket Books. // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/dahr-jamail-6 // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

Social critic and activist Alley Valkyrie returns to the podcast to discuss the recent wave of strikes and civil disrupt in France. As someone who has spent most of their life within the borders of the United States and a current resident of Rennes, France, Alley provides a well-rounded description of events that have led to one of the largest strikes and protests in recent memory in the nation. Anglophone media rarely provides accurate insight into the protests in French society. Regarding the nationwide labor strikes and confrontational protests in major French metropolitan areas over the past several weeks, US media in particular simplifies the demands of those participating in them, resorting to common stereotypes and tropes of the lazy French and the robust social welfare system that spoil them. The reforms neoliberal president Emmanuel Macron forces through the legislature that strip hard-earned gains of the citizens of France are minimized, whether subtly or overtly. Having lived in Rennes for the be

Clark from the Atlanta Community Press Collective joins me to discuss the Stop Cop City movement, also known as the Defend the Atlanta Forest (or Defend Weelaunee Forest) movement in Atlanta, Georgia. Clark is not a representative of the movement, but through his coverage, speaks clearly to the concerns raised by activists and forest occupiers of the construction of Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (Cop City). Clark is part of the Atlanta Community Press Collective (ACPC), an abolitionist, not-for-profit media collective. ACPC’s goal is to make the day-to-day workings of local government accessible to the public and to provide an independent voice in a local media landscape increasingly dominated by corporate interests. Episode Notes: - Read the transcript: https://lastborninthewilderness.substack.com/p/stop-cop-city-clark-atlanta-community - Learn more about the movement and how to support: https://defendtheatlantaforest.org

 - Follow and support the Atlanta Community Press Collective: https://atl

Writer John Halstead returns to the podcast to discuss his widely read article, 'Jumping the Gap: Where Green Transphobia Leads,' published at A Beautiful Resistance. John Halstead’s article uses the ideological trajectory of Paul Kingnorth, co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project and a fierce critic of “Big Green environmentalism,” to examine trans-exclusionary politics and rhetoric in certain leftist ecoactivist movements and spaces. John has remarked Kingsnorth was an “intellectual idol” of his, helping him form many of his own ideas about humanity’s severed relationship with the earth, with poignant ruminations on the roots of anthropogenic climate change, the dead end of techno-optimism, and industrial civilization’s inevitable collapse. But, as Halstead began to more closely examine Kingnorth’s writings since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, he, like many others who admired his perspective, was disturbed by his “benevolent green nationalism,” defense of the British monarchy, and openly derisive chara

Evolutionary epidemiologist and author Rob Wallace returns to the podcast to discuss his new collection, 'The Fault in Our SARS: COVID-19 in the Biden Era,' published through Monthly Review. This discussion is long, but certainly worth a listen. Entering year four of the pandemic, Rob Wallace has diligently, and extensively, written two books worth of essays on the various facets of the SARS-2 outbreak, many of which are examined in this interview. Rob skewers the Biden administration’s political, institutional, and rhetorical approach to the BSL-3 [Biosafety Level 3] pathogen’s burn through the population, picking apart the scientism, employed by both the political elite and their media lackeys to rationalize and normalize the mass death and disability of millions. Rob Wallace is an agroecologist, economic geographer and evolutionary epidemiologist at the Agroecology and Rural Economics Research Corps in St Paul. He is the author of 'Big Farms Make Big Flu'; 'Dead Epidemiologists: On the Origins of COVID-

Investigative journalist and author Justin Mikulka joins me to discuss the recent train derailment in East Palestine, bomb trains, and the devastating consequences the lack of regulation of the railroad industry is having on the environment and human communities across North America. Justin Mikulka is a research fellow at New Consensus working on investigating the best solutions and policies to facilitate the energy transition. Prior to joining New Consensus in October 2021, Justin reported for DeSmog, where he began in 2014. Justin has a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University, and is the author of ‘Bomb Trains: How Industry Greed and Regulatory Failure Put the Public at Risk’ (2019). Episode Notes: - Learn more about and follow Justin’s work: https://justinmikulka.com / https://twitter.com/justinmikulka - Purchase a copy of ‘Bomb Trains’: https://a.co/d/ilbYKuu - The articles cited in the introduction are “‘This is absurd’: Train cars that derailed in Ohio were labeled non

Animist artist, practitioner, and facilitator Dare Carrasquillo (formerly Sohei) returns to the podcast to discuss death practice, collectivism as the politics of wholeness, trauma and the story of the self, and the proto-human matrifocal coalition and the ritual of no. Dare Carrasquillo’s work dances with the integration of animist/indigenous lifeways with liberatory anti-oppression principles and nondual somatics, which can be pithily summed up as Death Practice. They are based in Chinook Lands aka Portland, OR, USA. Episode Notes: - Subscribe to The Night Garden: https://thenightgarden.substack.com - Learn more about Animist Arts and support Dare and Larissa Kaul’s work: https://www.animistarts.art / https://www.patreon.com/animistarts - Music produced by Epik The Dawn: https://epikbeats.net WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness DONATE: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast / https://venmo.com/LastBornPodcast BOOK LIST: https://bo

Journalist Brian Mier, co-editor at Brasil Wire and correspondent for teleSUR English, returns to the podcast to discuss the recent chaos in Brazil, days after the inauguration of popular center-left President Lula da Silva. In previous interviews I've conducted with Brian Mier, I asked him to detail the complex circumstances in Brazil giving rise to far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro and his victory in the 2018 presidential election. Mier's analysis detailed the well-documented consequences of the so-called anti-corruption scandal that led to the ousting of center-left president Dilma Rousseff in 2016, the imprisonment of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva soon after (as well as his eventual release), and finally, the US government's complicity through all of it.  When the time came late last year for Bolsonaro to run for a second term, Lula stepped in as a contender, and won. Leading up to the vote, Bolsonaro and various far-right actors, many of which are linked to Trump in the US, attempted to

Author and journalist Shane Burley returns to the podcast to discuss the anthology ‘No Pasaran: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis,’ published this fall through AK Press. Burley is the editor and a contributor to this collection. In catching up since our last interview, I ask Shane to clarify where the far-right stands in a "post-Trump" context. What inroads have far-right, and explicitly fascist, ideologues made in political discourse and policy in the United States over the past two years? How coherent is the far-right agenda and who are their targets? What are the paths to power? And most importantly, how can various subcultural spaces, as well as rural and urban communities, each build effective resistances to this threat? ‘No Pasaran,’ with its broad collection of voices, provides some of the most comprehensive answers to these questions. Shane Burley is the author of ‘Why We Fight’ and ‘Fascism Today.’ His work has been featured in places such as NBC News, Al Jazeera, The Baffler, Jewish Cu

Author Travis Linnemann joins me to discuss his recently released book 'The Horror of Police,' published by University of Minnesota Press. A good amount of ink has been spilt on the subject of policing — its historical origins; the oppressive and repressive role police play in the day-to-day lives of various marginalized communities; how “copaganda” shapes our collective perceptions of police and police work; and the numerous radical, reformist, and reactionary movements that have risen up against, or in defense of, police across the United States and the world. While Travis Linnemann examines these various subjects and perspectives in 'The Horror of Police,' he does so by delving into the ontological framework police operate within in by “drawing on the language and texts of horror fiction,” philosophy, and police procedurals in film and television. The abject stark horror police invoke, particularly when one recognizes that they are not the “monster fighters” they claim to be, but in fact monsters themsel

Award-winning journalist Boyce Upholt joins me to discuss his article 'Will the Next Pandemic Start With Chickens?' published at The New Republic. Boyce begins his report, as well as this interview, by describing the troubling conditions in chicken facilities in Butler Country, Nebraska, and, by extension, across the industrialized world. This past spring, a highly deadly and contagious strain of avian influenza swept through bird and other animal populations. Considering the conditions described in his piece, there is a very real possibility of a spillover event occurring in the near future, leading to an influenza pandemic in the human population. Broadly, this discussion, while examining the real threat highly consolidated industrialized food production is having on human and more-than-human beings, explores the so-called First World's relationship with food, food production, and the ecologies we are inextricably tied to. Boyce Upholt is an award-winning freelance writer focused on the way we use and im